Street-sweeper



3 Sheets-Sheet 1 {No Model.)

H. MUELLER, Jr. STREET SWBEPER. No. 563,869. Patented July 14, 1896.

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H. MUELLER, Jr.

, STREET SWEEPER. No. 563,869.

Patented July 14, 1896.

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STREET SWBBPER Patented July 14, 1896.

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UNITED STATES I PATENT Orrrcn.

IIENR-Y MUELLER, JR., F ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

STREET-SWEEPER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 568,869, dated July 14, 1896.

Application filed October 17, .1896 Serial No. 565,990. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that l, HENRY MUELLER, J r. a citizen of the United States, residing at St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Street-Sweepers, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof.

My invention has relation to improvements in street-sweepers and it consists in the novel arrangement and combination of parts, more fully set forth in the specification and pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings, Figure l is a side elevation of my complete invention. Fig. 2 is a rear end view of the same. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the rotating disk carrying the brushes. Fig. 4c is a section taken through the broom-spindle on the line 00 a; of Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a crosssection on the line 3 y of Fig. 4, and Fig. 6 is a top plan view of a double form or modification of the sweeper.

The object of the present invention is to construct a street-sweeper which shall in every respect be a gutter-broom, that is, a broom which will thoroughly clean out the contents of gutters, and effectively sweep all the dirt that has accumulated at the juncture of the cnrbstone and the street proper. To this end lhave devised a street-sweeper which in detail may be described as follows.

Referring to the drawings, 1 represents a frame the front Wheels 2 of which are merely shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1 to indicate their relative position.

3 represents the rear driving-wheels, which are fixed to the ends of a shaft 4:, mounted and revolving in suitable boxing 5 at the bottom of the rear of the frame. At a convenient point along the shaft at is secured a sprocket-wheel 6, over which passes a chain 7, which. operates a small sprocket-wheel S, forming a part of the female coupling 9 of a suitable clutch mechanism, said female coupling freely revolving at one end of a transverse shaft 10, mounted in suitable bearings The male coupling 12 of the clutch is feathered to the projecting end of the shaft in the usual well-known manner, and is coupled with or uncoupled from the female portion by the yoke 3 of the short arm 14: of a shifting lever l5, pivoted to an arm 16, carried by the frame, and held in any of the two positions by pins passed through alining openings of the said lever and of a plate 17 at the end of the said arm. The driver can thus clutch or unclutch the shaft 10 from the action of the driving-wheels 3 at pleasure. The opposite end of the shaft 10 has seen red thereto a bevel-pinion l8,which meshes with a similar pinion 19, keyed to the revolving spindle 20 of the broom 21. The feather 22, by which the pinion 19 is keyed to the spindle, is of sufficient length to allow for the necessary longitudinal adjustment of the spindle through said pinion, as subsequently more particularly referred to. The pinion 19 has a tubular extension 23, which, whatever may be the relative position of the spindle, always operates within the boxin g formed bya block 2* secured to the lateral beam of the frame, and the clip 2i embracing said extension and having its opposite ends secured to the inner surface of the said block, as best seen in Fig. 5.

As seen from Figs. 1 and 2, the broomspindle 2O tilts forward on the frame, being inclined not only to the general horizontal surface of the frame, but also to the general plane of rotation of the wheels 3. That is to say, it inclines diagonally upward with respect to the four corners of the frame. The spindle is held rigidly in its inclined position by the supporting-bracket 25, secured to the top of the frame. The lower or depending end of the spindle carries a plate or disk 26, having an inclined or bevel peripheral edge 27, along which are disposed in pairs a series of pins 28 at right angles to the surface of said peripheral edge, the outer ends of the pins being screw-threaded and each pair of pins being adapted to have passed over it a retaining-plate 29, held in place by nuts 30, passed over the outer ends of the pins. Between the retaining-plates and the inclined peripheral edge of the disk 26 the individual brushes 3l of the broom are clamped,by which arrangement the several brushes are given a uniform outward inclination, so as to give the broom, as a whole, the form of the frustum of a cone, as best seen in Fig. 1.

As the sweeping edge of the broom wears away, it becomes necessary to depress or adjust the broom the required distance to effect the necessary contact between said edge and the ground or surface to be swept. This is accomplished by the following mechanism:

Loosely embracing the upper portion of the .end of the sleeve 32 is provided with a handle 36 or crank-arm, which when turned rotates the sleeve and driving it up or down in its bearing 33, and thus causing it to carry with it the spindle 20 and broom secured at the bottom of the same. In this way, therefore, as the broom wears away it can be lowered by simply turning the crank-arm 36 in the proper direction; or, in case it be desirable, the broom can be raised entirely from the ground byturning the crank-arm. in the reverse direction. It is apparent that were the spindle 20 (which constitutes in effect the axis of the rotating broom) inclined simply forward the broom would sweep the dirt lying directlyin front of the same. only, that is, to the side of the frame and the driving-wheels carried by it, the broom would sweep the dirt l'yin g on the side thereof; but with the present diagonal inclination of the spindle the broom sweeps not only the dirt lying in front of it, but also that on the side thereof, producing thus a maximum efficiency fication can of course be used in sweeping the street proper in addition to the gutter.

Having described my invention, what I claim is- 1. In a street-sweeper, a suitable frame, a

If it were in clined laterally spindle carried by the same, a broom at the lower end of the spindle, a bracket for retaining said spindle in proper position 011 the frame, a rotatable sleeve loosely embracing the spindle, and suitable connections between the spindle and sleeve for varying the elevation of the spindle upon rotation of the sleeve in proper direction, substantially as set forth.

2. In a street-sweeper, a suitable frame, a spindle carried by the same and normally inclined both to the general plane of the frame and to the plane of rotation of the drivingwheels, a broom at the lower end of the spindle, a'bracket for said'spindle for retaining the latter at the proper inclination, a rotatable sleeve carried by said bracket loosely embracing the spindle, the sleeve supporting the upper end of the spindle and suitable connections between said spindle and sleeve for varying the elevation of the spindle upon rotation of the sleeve in proper direction, sub stantially as set forth.

8. In a street-sweeper, a suitable frame, a spindle carried by the same, a broom at the lower end of the spindle, a suitable bracket for retaining the spindle inclined to the gen eral surface of the frame, an interiorly-screwthreaded bearing forming a part of said bracket, a sleeve exteriorly screw-threaded embracing the spindle and operating within the interiorly-screw-threaded bearing of the bracket, retaining-collars carried by the spin dle at either end of the sleeve, a suitable crank-handle for imparting rotation to said sleeve and thus varying the position of the spindle, a pinion feathered to said spindle, a tubular extension for said pinion embracing the spindle,suitable boxing for said extension, a transverse shaft carried by the frame and having a terminal pinion cooperating with the pinion feathered to the spindle, and means for imparting rotation to said shaft from the driving-wheels of the machine, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof-I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

HENRY MUELLER, JR. lVitnesses:

ALFRED A. MATHEY, EMIL STAREK. 

